Meet Inspiring Interior Designer of the Year 2014: Krista Ninivaggi

Krista Ninivaggi- founder of K&CO in her newest venture strives to encapsulate all of her design experiences to date so that her vision and work process can fully serve her clients. In 2011 Ninivaggi joined SHoP Architects as the Director of the Interior Design Group. During her tenure, she completed interiors for projects such as the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, Google’s Executive Offices, in Mountain View, CA, and the New York Corporate office of Shopbop, which was selected as an honoree at Interior Design magazine’s 2012 Best of Year Awards. In 2013, Ninivaggi was honored with the title of “Young Gun” by Curbed.com. Most recently, at the end of January Contract magazine named Krista Ninivaggi BArch 02 its 2014 Designer of the Year for her work as director of the interior design group at SHoP Architects in New York City.

This citation-winning project has hardly wanted for media exposure. Benefiting, among other things, from the patronage of rapper Jay-Z, SHoP’s Barclays Center has turned out to be the biggest thing to hit Brooklyn since the bridge. “It’s a transformative project,” said juror David Jameson, echoing fellow jurist Cathy Lang Ho’s assertion that the sports and entertainment arena has “completely changed the neighborhood.”

Hand-blown crystal bottles of Armand de Brignac, the preferred champagne of Jay-Z, line the wall behind the champagne bar in the Vault suites at Barclays Center. Armand de Brignac is a sponsor of the Vault, and Jay-Z, a former part-owner of the Brooklyn Nets and the arena itself, was one of the clients for the space.

A light pendant developed by Ninivaggi for the vault space at Barclay’s. Ninivaggi produced a full-scale mockup of the piece to convince the client of the design.

Ninivaggi has more inspirational projects in her portfolio. With SHoP Ninivaggi had designed a VIP lounge room for viewing clothes is enclosed by sliding glass doors. The aesthetic is a juxtaposition of rough and smooth, urban and country, and was inspired by the fashions available from Shopbop.

While with Rockwell Group, Ninivaggi was part of the team that created the interior of Nobu Fifty Seven in New York, and she designed the back-lit onyx host stand.

While at AvroKO, Ninivaggi was one of the designers for the restaurant Lily & Bloom in Hong Kong. AvroKO custom-designed many details in the restaurant, and most of the furnishings and finishes were fabricated in mainland China.

“I feel so lucky that I’m able to take these big architectural ideas and figure out how to translate them into the interiors of a building,” Ninivaggi notes in a recent interview. “We’re bringing back the idea of the ‘master architect’ – a team that designs buildings right down to the furniture.”

I must say these pics are beautiful.Not to motnien the color of the wedding dress, very different and I LOVE IT!!! The lil wrap around is adorable too.Its a great dress and it looks amazing in all the shots.Great Pics Tamara, you truly capture the momentoh and my other fav pic is the necklace dangling from the tree. very nice touch.